A shade of sorrow passed over Taliesin's face. 'There are those,' he said gently, 'who must first learn loss, despair, and grief. Of all paths to wisdom, this is the cruelest and longest. Are you one who must follow such a way? This even I cannot know. If you are, take heart nonetheless. Those who reach the end do more than gain wisdom. As rough wool becomes cloth, and crude clay a vessel, so do they change and fashion wisdom for others, and what they give back is greater than what they won.

That was "the story of a young person going out into the world for the first time and finding the world a very difficult place indeed. He once described it as being educational for him and as "rather like being a visiting uncle who has a marvelous time with his nephews and nieces then goes off leaving the parents to cope with attacks of whooping cough mending socks and blackmailing the kids to straighten up the mess in their rooms. I loved all the world's mythologies; King Arthur was one of my heroes;.

His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion The High King was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.